WAMU 88.

5 - COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING

Approved Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, February 9, 2022

WAMU Community Council Members Attending:

Alexis Moreno, Susan Weiss, Troy Donte Prestwood, C.C. Gachet, Maceo Thomas, Michele Manatt,
Christy Gavitt, Samson Girma, Richard "Dick" Kaufmann, Raymond Weeden, Cosby Hunt, Anne Haynes,
Jenna Jones, Ayanna Smith, Cheryl Thompson and Michael Akin

WAMU/AU Staff Attending:

Dawnita Altieri, Monna Kashfi, Seth Grossman, Lynn Croneberger, Carey Needham, Nichole McCoy,
Bryan Colombo, Douglas Bell, Eric Falquero and Erika Pulley-Hayes

Members of the Public Attending:

J. Leon Peace, Jill Diskan, Mickey Malaikah, Maria Grosjean, Valerie Trammel, Mindy Reiser, Somnath
Bhattacheryya, Margaret Clark, Sen. Cheryl Kagan, Shelli Brosh, Marlene Singer, Lily Liu, Barb Baumann,
and Caroline Greenburg

Welcome – Susan Weiss, Council Chair

Susan Weiss called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. and welcomed Council members to the
first quarterly meeting of 2022.

Old Business
Susan Weiss moved to the approval of the December 1 quarterly Council meeting minutes. The
motion to approve the minutes was seconded by Maceo Thomas. There were no objections.

Susan Weiss moved to Erika Pulley-Hayes’ remarks.

Erika Pulley-Hayes:
• Welcomed new members to the meeting.
• Shared information about WAMU’s Black History month programming called Lift Every
Voice.
• Discussed the expansion of community conversations that began with Wards 7&8 in
January. Mentioned that we would like to have these conversations with other DC
wards and throughout the Maryland and Virginia region.
• Welcomed Eric Falquero, Strategic Partnerships Editor.

Feature Presentation:
Eric Falquero shared his biography and gave a brief overview of his role as WAMU’s inaugural Strategic
Partnerships Editor.

Eric will coordinate with the newsroom, and collaborate the marketing, business and
development/fundraising initiatives with our teams to cultivate external partnerships.
Eric provided examples of current and upcoming community collaborations including a partnership with
The Creative School in Washington, DC. This program will bring a Spring 2022 journalism workshop to
D.C. Public School students in Wards 7 and 8. This workshop will take place during the spring break for
DCPS students and is meant to expose students to the basic tenets of journalism. Students will learn
how to conduct an interview, synthesize a brief article from that interview, and take a photograph to
accompany their story. They will have an editing session with one of our editors and the final product
will be published on our platforms.

o Last year, we entered into a partnership with El Tiempo Latino. They cross-published their first
Spanish translation of a DCist.com story in September, with their first story published in English
on our website a month later. This is an ongoing collaboration, with El Tiempo Latino. Eric asked
the Council to provide feedback on their engagement with their communities and asked how
members get their networks excited about WAMU.

Council members responded:

MICHAEL AKIN:

• I talk to people about WAMU being one of those sources that can cover breaking news but does
not stop there, it talks about why things are broken and in long form.

ANNE HAYNES:

• Really struck by the fact these partnerships enable us to lift voices and enable the station to
spread their message and work.

SAMSON GIRMA:

• I’m excited about WAMU and its accessibility. I really promote to the people that this is a station
that covers local issues, but it is within reach. You will see things covered that relate to your
neighborhood or things you are familiar with from your experience in the area.

SUSAN WEISS:

• The staff ranging from editorial to membership to fundraising has always been very accessible,
and willing to share information with us at our regular meetings. It is exciting and very dynamic,
and really connected to the community in new ways.

COSBY HUNT:

• I remember having a question about how can we reach speakers of other languages? So, now
when people ask me, I can say, "I joined the Council and a couple months in they were already
partnering with Spanish-speaking outlets." So, that's impressive to me. I appreciate that.

CHRISTY GAVITT:

• One thing that I say to people why I support WAMU is the due diligence is done.
ALEXIS MORENO:

• You are exactly what we need to fill that bridge from listener to engaging, so thank you so much.
I find myself talking about WAMU mostly to uber drivers when I was taking them more regularly
and they would have the station on, and I would start a conversation around what they were
listening to. Especially if it was news. That always helped start a conversation. I am always
listening to how WAMU is representing mental health and education around that.

ERIKA PULLEY-HAYES:

• We have so many diverse communities across the region that we cover, and we have such a
large community of folks here that I am looking for eyes and ears to reach those community
leaders that we are otherwise potentially unaware of.

MICHELE MANATT:

• So nice to meet you, Eric. I am excited about everything; this is such a gift to start this meeting
off. It would be interesting to know what to do when on occasion we hear reporting that might
just be a little bit overly directed or biased.

MACEO THOMAS:

• I serve on the board of Humanities DC. The district’s humanities Council. There may be some
synergies for future partnership, and I will follow up with you on email.

Eric provided his contact information and requested a single lead from each Council member. He
asked members to send information about organizations or individuals that we may contact.

Susan Weiss moved to the station update and introduced Monna Kashfi for the Content update.

Station Update
In response to Michele’s question Monna shared the best way to reach the newsroom with questions or
concerns is through the “contact us” page on WAMU’s website. Following up on Eric’s presentation,
Monna shared that after partnerships have been identified, the station is dedicated to measuring the
impact of the station’s work so that it can inform the station’s approaches to content creation.

Traditionally impact is defined through traffic numbers, how many clicks our story gets, how many
people are listening at any given moment of time, how much traffic we see on social media or on the
website. That is all useful data, but more and more we realize that we need to have different measures
of impact. Our audience engagement team came up with new metrics that I want to share with you.

• Community based response, how the contact inspires, encourages, or prompts committee
members to act whether that is an open letter, or other types of campaign or engagement with
local leaders.
• How many times, or how often our work is referenced or linked to by other publications, or
other works. How the work is amplified by notable figures.
 • Figures who have a following who are in a position of having impact on their own, what revenue
opportunities that might bring us, awards, or other opportunities for the team, whether it is
invitations to speak about their work or a particular article on a panel. Or being recognized as a
subject matter expert for their work.
• And how it helps us develop trust with the community.

Looking at 2021, the largest impact points were how many times a story was referenced in other work
and linked back to our content from other platforms and developing trust with the community was the
second most impactful measure.

We also looked at our impact by topics. Looking at 2021, our coverage of the pandemic and our local
politics coverage had the most resonance, and the greatest response.

And finally, these are just highlights from November and December 2021:

• Jacob's coverage of a local resident, who was killed very tragically in a hit-and-run.
• A DC police investigation that we partnered with, Reveal, saw a great response as well as action
on the legislative front.
• A look at how a Thanksgiving football game brings the community together, on an annual basis.
• A report on the failures of the DC jail and the impact on the 400 residents.

This approach of measuring our impact beyond the traditional traffic numbers have allowed us to be
more thoughtful about the work, and make sure that the resources we have are used to serve our core
mission and values and serve the community in a better way.

RICHARD "DICK" KAUFMANN:

• I think there's a need that we do some programming aimed at the elderly community that
listens. A lot of programs are aimed at younger people to sustain the station, but in doing so you
do not want to lose the older listener, and right now with the pandemic going on, a lot of these
older people are really suffering.

JENNA JONES:

• Jenna offered that there are many ways to engage older listeners to become volunteers, or to
share their thoughts on things. I do think it is a great strength that WAMU has a broad range of
ages on the air, when I listen to the reporters, I know a lot of reporters are younger than I am.

The meeting moved to the Philanthropy update.

Lynn Croneberger provided a recap of the December campaign and responded to Jenna’s question
about volunteers at WAMU. We have many active volunteers who are engaged in various aspects of the
station’s activities.

The campaign is now a month-long process between the digital work beforehand, and the quiet digital
work afterwards. The goal for the campaign was $2 million and 14,000 new members. We also
partnered again with the Capital Area Food Bank.
Our next campaign is coming up in March. This theme for the campaign is “WAMU is your constant
companion.” People are often making that statement when they call in to make donations.

We are working with nonprofit a Wider Circle that provides education in the community. The big push is
to get sustainers for the station. Council members should set up their accounts to become a sustaining
member of WAMU. Council members must be WAMU members to participate in the Community
Council.

New Business & Announcements – Susan Weiss, Chair

Susan Weiss thanked everyone for the updates and moved to the public comment period.

Public Comments:
Jill Diskan, from the public made a comment that she enjoyed hearing all the things that WAMU
is doing to reach out to the community.

The public comment period ended.

Adjournment:

Susan asked if there were additional questions or comments then turned it over to Co-Chair
Troy Donte Prestwood to say a few words. Troy added that he is thinking about ways for the
Council to be more involved with providing connections for the station and would follow up in
the coming weeks in an email.

Susan Weiss adjourned the meeting at 7:40 p.m., the adjournment was seconded by Michelle Manatt.